Blood Twist (The Erris Coven Series) by Bonnie Wheeler Read Free Book Online Page B

have been cooked. Is there something we can get you to eat tonight other than blood ?” She tried sounding practical and unfazed by his dietary needs, but the words felt funny as they passed her lips. 
    Braden turned his sultry bl ue eyes on her and just smiled without saying anything. She couldn’t help but flush under his gaze. Warmth spread through her, sending little tingles down her spine .
    “They might have some trail mix outside in the vending machine or something,” she mumbled.

“I’m not hungry ,” he replie d, still watching her.
    She bit into her pizza. The oozing cheese had lost its appeal, but she needed to stop noticing how attra ctive Braden was in his distressed jeans and Abercrombie tee shirt .  It was funny how the more time she spent w ith him, the more desirable she found him. He wasn’t even her type . 
    I can admire him just for tonight, but tomorrow, back to business .
    “ So, what do you do when you’re not chasing werewolves?” she asked, opening her can of Mt. Dew. “Does your family hang out with other damphyrs?”
    “We try to stay under the radar. The only other damphyrs are our elders in Eire. ” Braden sat as still as a statue in the chair, but his impassioned stare left her unnerved.
    Liz shook her head, trying to understand. “ So your ancestors are the only family of half-vampires, ever?”
    “There was once a good sized family of them in Southeastern Europe who had settlements mostly in Greece and Turkey. ” He stared at her mouth as she carefully chewed. “ My relations made contact with them – but they were hunted down to extinct ion over two hundred years ago. Their origin was a bit different than our own , but essentially we were the same . They didn’t drink from humans either. ”
    Liz couldn’t help but detect the note of sadness in his voice. What was it like to be so different?
    She thought of her own life, being abandoned by her mother and sent away by her father. She never felt like she was a part of the typic al nuclear family with a mom, dad and 2.5 children . Instead, she struggled to play catch up with her friends who had parents and siblings, ev en a childhood home. She pretend ed to relate to those things, but never d id . Perhaps as a damphyr, Braden had to do the same thing.
    Make believe. 
    “What about you?” he asked, lifting himself from the chair. “Lexie said you live with your aunt. Is she nice? ” Braden wandered around the room. H e picked up a travel brochure displayed on the TV cabinet, glanced at it briefly , and then placed it back on the stand.
    “Aunt Bev is okay.” Liz closed up the pizza box . “She puts up with me anyway. She never wanted to have children, especially a gangly adolescent , but the Captain decided she was better suited to handle me since she had ovaries and everything.”
    “Why do you call your father Captain?” Braden asked.
    “It started out as a joke. He’s a Navy man, so h is men always called him Captain, ” Liz explained , placing the greasy box on the small table by the window. “ It was hard to get his attention, so one day when I was ten, I thought I woul d call him by his title and see what happened . But, he didn’t even notice. That’s when I stopped calling him Dad.”
    “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “You deserve better than that.”
    Liz wanted to shake it off and pretend it didn’t matter. She usuall y masked her hur t feelings regarding her only parental , but for the first time, decided not to. Instead she just smiled at Brade n without saying more . H is words were sweet and it was nice to know he meant them. Some people will say things because they pity you, but she could tell he cared.
    Liz sat back down on th e bed. Although it was midafternoon in Vancouver, because of the time difference and her early morning, it fe l t like late evening. Pulling the covers back, she slipped in between the cool sheets. Perhaps they could watch a movie or nap for a while before going out